By default, Windows keeps all the files you delete in the Recycle Bin. That may include ones you may have accidentally deleted. However, it becomes impossible to recover your deleted files or folders if those files do not show up in the Recycle Bin. This can happen on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Several factors can prevent your deleted files from showing up in the Recycle Bin. Here is how to solve such problems and recover your deleted files from Trash without any hassle.
1. Check if the Recycle Bin is configured correctly
If you cannot find your deleted files in the Recycle Bin, check that the Recycle Bin is configured correctly. If it’s set to delete files immediately whenever you delete them, you won’t find them in the Recycle Bin.
To check the configuration of the Recycle Bin on your computer, follow these steps:
Step 1: Press Windows + S key combination and type Trash can. Then, from the results for Trash, click Open.
Step 2: When the Recycle Bin opens, click on the three horizontal dots menu from the toolbar in the top right corner and select Properties.
Note: You can also access the Trash Properties by right-clicking the Trash icon on your desktop and selecting Properties.
Step 3: In the Trash Properties window, check if the radio button is next to ‘Do not move files to Trash’. Delete files immediately when delete’ is selected. If that’s the case, select the radio button next to the Custom size option and enter a four- or five-digit value, depending on your storage capacity. Then click Apply to save the changes.
2. Disable or reconfigure Storage Sense
Another possible explanation for why you can’t find your deleted files inside the Recycle Bin is that Storage Sense may have deleted them permanently. Although Storage Sense in Windows can help free up some disk space when your computer is running low on storage space, allowing it to automatically empty the Recycle Bin.
If you want to keep your deleted files for a while, you need to disable Storage Sense or reconfigure it to never empty the Recycle Bin. Here’s how you can do it.
Step 1: Press the Windows + I key combination to open the Settings application.
Step 2: When the Settings app opens, select System in the left sidebar and click Storage in the right pane.
Step 3: Turn off the switch next to Storage Sense.
If you find Storage Sense useful and don’t want to disable it, you can move on to the next step and reconfigure the settings for Storage Sense so it doesn’t automatically empty the Recycle Bin.
Step 4: Click on Storage Sense to configure.
Step 5: Click the drop-down for ‘Delete files in my trash if they’ve been there more than:’ and select Never.
That means deleted files will show up in the Recycle Bin and will stay there until you manually delete them.
3. Increase the Maximum Storage Size of the Trash
By default, the Recycle Bin can only store files that take up less than 5 percent of your hard drive’s total storage space. If deleted files exceed this limit, they will not go to the Recycle Bin. Instead, those files are permanently deleted from your computer.
If you are having a similar problem deleting large files on your computer, you can override the default Recycle Bin settings to accommodate larger files inside the Recycle Bin.
Step 1: Press Windows + S key combination to open Windows Search and type Trash can. Then, from the results for Trash, click Open.
Step 2: When the Recycle Bin opens, click on the three horizontal dots menu in the top right corner and select properties.
Note: You can also access the Trash Properties by right-clicking the Trash icon on your desktop and selecting Properties.
Step 3: Click in the text box next to Maximum Size (MB) and enter a value higher than the default size. Then click Apply to save the changes.
4. Reset Trash
If none of the previous solutions worked, the Recycle Bin on your computer may have been corrupted. To fix this problem, you need to reset the Recycle Bin using the Command Prompt.
Here’s how you can reset the Recycle Bin on your Windows 11 computer:
Step 1: Press Windows + S key combination and type Command prompt. Then from the results for Command Prompt, click Run as administrator.
Step 2: Click Yes when the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears on the screen.
Step 3: Type the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter to reset the Recycle Bin. Then repeat the same command for every drive on your computer by replacing the letter C with the drive letter of the other drive.
rd /s /q C:$Recycle.bin
Running this command will delete all damaged folders/folders for the Recycle Bin, forcing Windows to recreate a new folder.
Recovering deleted files made easy
The chances of facing such a situation are quite slim. Hopefully, the above solutions will help you fix the error when deleting files that do not appear in the Recycle Bin. In the meantime, you can also check out our guide on how to empty the Recycle Bin if you need help with that on your Windows 11 computer.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
